For A Better Tomorrow

100/200 blinds

Ace falls Barry Checks and folds to a bet of 400. (5700/400 = 14.25 to 1)

I’m going to go ahead and write about the Barry Greenstein scenerio because a lot of this will fade into my first live limit session. Anyway there is much to discuss about this fold not to mention how incredible it was. To fold here, you’d have to be pretty damn certain that your opponent has the following two hands, AA, AK. Although in my opinion, if I were Barry Greeinstein, I would think that the German player had AA, not AK. Mainly because of his lack of disclipline, he kept raising and raising whereas a good player in that situation might be a little scared of a set. I can see that the German player is not a good player mainly because of how he played the Turn in this game. When his ace fell, and Barry is check raised him, he should believe that his measly Two Pair is dead for good, however like he said in his article, “I simply got carried away. Instead of going onto the tank and re-think the whole hand I simply re-raised and got called.” By the end of the turn, if I were Barry, I would think that I was already beat because I would’ve thought that this guy had AA because simply and AK in this situation is being overplayed.

Now lets get to the beginning. Lets put ourselves in Barry’s shoes. There will be lack of details mainly because we never experienced the table nor do we know the history of the German player. Barry probably has some idea since he’s been sitting at the table. However, I’m going to based this off of what I read only.

Now, We’re sitting in the big blind with KK and there was a raise coming from 1st position! I’m assuming Barry wishes to slowplay these Kings because reraising preflop in limit hold em may almost be like telling your opponennt you have JJ or Better. I’m assuming Barry decided to disguise his hand a bit.

(Here’s a little advance information on limit holdem, sometimes if you reraise preflop, a good player can put you on a big pocket pair immediately, of course also depends on how you play, it won’t matter what hand he has, if he sees and ace on the flop, he’ll scare you out of the pot if he smells any weakness coming from you being scared of that ace. You can be vulnerable with the pocket pair, in this case KK. I’ve done this before with 7/8 suited raising to try to steal a big blind but the big blind immediately reraises me. I told myself that if I see an ace I’m going to remain agressive and try to scare his big pocket pair. And it worked. Not only can I kill him if the flop comes out both my cards or a set, but if an ace came out I can scare him .

Anyway, that’s another limit tournament story. In this case we see Barry smooth call with his kings and checks to the raiser on the flop of K73. Now with the cap on the flop, I would immediately put the German player on the following hands. With the 1st position raise preflop, I would put this guy on 77,33,AA, AK, and if he’s a weak player QQ. I honestly cannot picture K7,K3, 73, or QQ and under with this type of flop action.

The turn comes an Ace which is a scare card for Barry but however, he can still beat 77,33,AK, Barry must find out if this player has AA. And by the way the German player capped it on the turn. The German player is obviously not scared of a set or two pair, which indicates that he should have AA.

My thinking is this, I would be worrried if I was Barry because since he checked raised and 4 bet on the flop, and did the same again on the turn, Barry should be worried why this guy isnt scared of a set. If there were any indication of weakness or worry, that German player should’ve just called and see a river rather than just three betting it on the turn.

Barry Checks, German Bets 400!, Barry Raises 400 more, German Reraises 400, Barry Raises, and German Caps. Barry Calls. The Turn Costs 3,200+2500 = 5,700 pot total.

Barry Checks, German Bets 400!, Barry Raises 400 more, - now here is where the German player could’ve simply stopped the action on the turn by calling right here….but he didn’t he continued compulsively. Now the way the action ended on the turn if I were Barry I would immediately put this guy on AA. If he had 77 or 33, he should’ve been scared of a set of kings or AA, especially by the way Barry check raised on both the flop and turn.

And Ace comes on the river and Barry checks - I’m sure he already believes that he lost right here. Now, the German player bets. Now this is a bet wanting a call because the pot is so big, it’s obvious that Barry is going to call. So that would mean that the German player has to have AA. And also in this scenerio he can have a measly AK and still beat Barry. That is why this fold is very precise on the two hands that can beat Barry. Now for the action to go on the way it did, I’m pretty certain that Barry folded thinking that the German player had AA and rivered Quads.

I don’t think many people understand this situation and why Barry folded. Now here are three big steps in poker.

A) You can learn to put players on a hand.
B) You can be certain that a player has a specific hand.
C) You are disciplined enough to lay down your hand believing in your correct read.

I believe that I can put people on certain hands however, I’m not sure if I have the ability to fold them yet. Now Barry is at a high level in poker. A good high cash player fights for every single bet, even when he/she has to fold. They have to make sure that their opponent is on a certain hand that way they can save their bets. Even if the pot odds are 14.25 - 1, just like the above scenerio, you can save 400 just by knowing your opponent has a better hand. Some people like myself have the ability to know for sure that the German Player had AK or AA but we would not be able to fold because we “want to see it with our eyes”, in that case, that would’ve costed me 400 chips just to see with my eyes.

My first limit session occured on Sunday night July 24,2005. I played for 3.5 hours and came up 260 dollars after buying in 260 dollars! So I pretty much doubled and gave myself another session. I can’t say that I just averaged 75 dollars an hour because that was just one session. This was definitely a very good session and it is something I can’t expect to see all the time.

Some people complain to me that it’s hard to play limit because people keep calling you to the river. If that is the case, then that means that you have to find another way to profit. My way of profiting was to keep betting with the best hand. How hard was that? At one point i had 77 and I raised prefloped,

Flop - 889, I knew the two callers didnt any of those but i kept betting and they kept calling. The turn was a 5 and one of the players folded. I bet on the river of 88959 with 7 high and the stupid lady calls me with Ace 5 and won. She had ace high…

Shit like that happens but it was extreme lucky. She was practically giving me her money to me. Her best bet to call there is to hit a split pot if I had a hand like AQ or AK, but even so, I could’ve held anything to beat her, but unfortunately I had 7 high because the two pair on the board cancelled out my pocket pair.

I’m predicting that as I move up in limits, I’m going to find it harder to win chips in this fashion. That means I have to find another way to win chips. I have some idea of how it’ll be like. But in this game at least the one i played, 4/8, it was nice to see everyone callling just to see the flop. I’d raise with AA and get 6 callers. 6×8 = 40 dollars! and if they chased, I’d get more money into the pot. At one point I had A7 and hit absolutely nothing but I kept betting all the way to the river. I had 4 callers by the time the river blanked out completing no flush or straights. I bet again and everyone folded because they were all chasing. It’s unbelievable.

3.5 hours 4/8 limit +260 9 big bets an hour = very good session so far. I cannot expect it to be like this all the time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 4:35 am and is filed under Chasing the River. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.